The Lampshade Book Diaries #1: Yes! Let's do it!

 

This post is the start of recording a year-long project (more or less) which is likely to be my biggest obsession of 2016. My Book.

My Book (as yet otherwise untitled) is completely and utterly dedicated to my love of lampshade making. It is written for the sole use of other lovelies who also enjoy rustling up bright affectations. It will be full of useful tips and wrinkles, very beautiful lampshade project ideas and will, I hope, share the joy that can be had with bits of wire and thread.

When working on the proposal for My Book there was precious little resource for folks who wanted to restore their own shades. Indeedy, my own stash of well thumbed ancient copies were written decades ago by lovelies called Phyllis and Olive. Back then craft books were designed to inform in an economic and largely monochrome way. I had decided to write A Sequel to these dry tomes, to bring the happy wonders of lampshade making to a new audience.

I sent out two or three copies of my proposal to my favourite publishers and it was the lovely folks at Search Press who saw the light and rang me that very day and said 'Yes! Yes indeed, let's do it!!'.

Such are the mysteries of the book publishing world that nearly a year has flown by. Five weeks ago (already!!) I went to meet my lovely publisher and editor, who were kind and enthusiastic and let me chatter about colours and shapes while they nodded and made notes.

And now my Shed is tidy (ish), my working life is reasonably re-organised to fit in this special task and there's nothing left to do but actually make a start. It is suddenly quite daunting. Indeed I have decided think about it only in chapter-sized chunks. I shall start in the places where I feel most at home and then, when I have got into the swing of it, venture into the daunting territories of not-quite-yet-resolved creative ideas. The fact that I won't be writing from the beginning and working my way through to the end isn't at all strange.

Each blog post will keep you up to date on my progress, making tips, creative planning, choosing fabrics and all the stuff and fluff that will go into writing a book about making things.

Meanwhile, I thought you might like to see what my world has started to look like...

my sewing room ceiling

my daughter's play shed... i HAVE promised i'll tidy up

the sewing room book shelves creaking under the weight of other fabulous craft books

the creative hub... the Shed

favourite treasures

i found these in a French car boot...

vintage lovelies that were lurking in the attic til quite recently (I'm not even taking you in there)

...and my lovely assistant Nellie who is a great secret keeper and snoozer

I'll try and keep you posted every week with progress. xx

PS I'm sitting in my Shed in a state of great excitement and anticipation as the lovely people at Dannells are sending a pile of their fabulous lampshades to me in a lorry TODAY!!!!! Yay! Needless to say I am hugely grateful for their generosity and happiness to be part of this great project. I shall, of course, tell you more about it next time (...like where on earth I found storage space) xxxxxxx